procrastination

Alright, I guess I need to skip ahead about 14 months and stop feeling overwhelmed about all I haven't been able to write yet. So much has happened, there have been so many extraordinarily pivotal moments that I want to share with you all, but it is just too difficult to put it all into words and there is much that is still very emotional. I've tried to write summaries before, but there is just so much of importance. This time, I am going to make myself keep it brief and get to what I really want to write about now. The thing that got me stopped was October 2006. There was so much trama and so many incredible blessings involved with Clara's brain tumor and her recovery that I could not get it all organized enough for a blog. Maybe, someday, it can be a book.

Last year at this time, we had a great visit with Paul and Mel in Missouri for Thanksgiving and started doing some much needed recovery of our own.Novemeber also brought us another niece, Lilly. Christmas was wonderful. We got to spend time with family and meet the first Anderson grandbaby Katie. In March, we visited Elder Chuckie in Washington, DC. Also in the spring, we had a visit from Mom and Dad Anderson and Janet with Adele in utero. The Murdocks came out and we had a fabulous Vigilante Justice reunion. We were also lucky enough to visit Grandpa Don and Carmen in West Virginia for Easter. Basil stayed busy over the summer doing research on sleep deprived adolescents (a subject we are both very over qualified in). We both also stayed busy working on our infertility and eventually trying in vitro fertilization successfully! YAY!!! We didn't get to make it back west, but we got to see baby Will Murdock before the Murdocks moved to Texas. We also welcomed nephew Will Christiansen and Nieces Rachel Jeppesen and Adele Anderson into the family from afar. We did however get to go camping at our favorite Ohio lake, Lake Hope, which we discovered, quite by accident, during our anniversary last year. We also camped at the John Johnston farm for Girls' camp which Kristen was in charge of. Oh, and we moved. Phew!

At the end of summer, we used Basil's first school break this year to welcome Paul and Mel up north when they moved to Detroit. After which, we visited Niagara falls and Canada. Kristen finally succumbed to her homesickness and made an emergency visit home in October. She loved meeting all the new babies and showing off her own bump. This fall has been beautiful in Cleveland. We were completely overjoyed a few weeks ago to find out that we will be having a baby girl. We are enjoying every minute (almost every minute) of parenthood and being together in our new cozy apartment.

This has been such a long post and I really do want to share a few pictures so I will put this up and save what I initially set out to write until the next one.